Age has helped Joyce. He took a long time to grow into a fully fledged heavyweight MAN. In his 20's he was really slim and could be rocked. Now he is in his late 30's he is almost unstoppable and his composure and grasp of his craft and abilities has peaked. His flaws of having little head movement and being very slow have been negated. It will take a Fury to beat Joyce. Parker could beat him if he had a 12 round gas tank, he does not.
He did a good job stopping Dubious in his hype-tracks for a while. But he's middle-aged and fought no top HW, despite having plenty of money and promotion behind him in the UK. He hasn't pushed for anything, clearly happy to sit back and be passive, cruise through, fighting shot names. It would be funny if Parker outworked him.
No, I don't think you are the only one. He looks glacially slow to me, and nothing special in his skill level. Basically, he's the type of fighter who may be a fringe world class operator for awhile, but who is likely to quickly devolve into a gatekeeper. That's my take on Joyce.
His progress has been slower than I would of liked, that's for sure. But having said that if you look at the rest of those that turned pro after the Rio Olympics he clearly has the best resume and has progressed the furthest. Yoka, spent a year out suspended and lost to Bakole, Hrgovic was left out to stagnate while trying to get an opponent for his eliminator and then struggled against Zhang, Dycho's career is going nowhere and Ajagba was exposed by Sanchez. Jalolov went back to the Olympics and won gold but he's still clearly a prospect. Joyce before he beat Dubois was very much a fighter who was seen as too old and likely going nowhere and so wasn't getting many opportunities. Plus Joyce was injured after the Takam fight so he was out for the first half of 2022. He's probably seen by a lot of guys as too much risk for little reward. Nobody is likely to give him a voluntary title shot. Kudos for Parker taking the fight, because a lot of guys probably don't fancy sharing a ring with a iron chinned 265lbs, heavyweight that doesn't stop throwing. I highly doubt Parker outworks Joyce, especially if he comes in heavy like he did vs Chisora.
Parker to do very well in the opening rounds and clock Joyce with some real nice right hands. But by the end of the fight Parker will be hiding. UD12 Joyce.
Take comeback foreman give him a higher workrate. More height. More reach. A bigger cory and you get Joe Joyce Joe Joyce is not to be trifled with.
Tell you what though, it could be great fun early, Joyce ostensibly there for right hands (I think he legit is until he gets them figured, it's weird) and Parker having a good one. I could definitely see Parker take early control and then get marched down, start that AJ flapping, Joyce not 100% sure he's got it in the bag really getting after him very late.
Lol @ Joyce being classed as glacially slow. Doesn't matter. But based on that analogy then, with all his other attributes, hitting him is akin to the Titanic hitting the giant iceberg. And we all know what happens there.
Could go the same way as Dubois for Joyce or he could struggle to win enough rounds to get a decision. I reckon he will squeeze past Parker via a split, maybe due to one late knock down.
